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Customs and Excise Act 2018

Administrative provisions - Disclosure of information - Disclosure to government agencies

309: Information matching for purposes of mutual assistance provision contained in social security agreement

You could also call this:

"Sharing information with other countries to help with social security benefits"

Illustration for Customs and Excise Act 2018

The government has agreements with other countries to help each other with social security. You might be wondering what social security is - it's when the government helps people with money or other support. The purpose of this law is to help the government share information with other countries.

When you apply for a benefit, you give the government some information about yourself. The government can share this information with Customs, which is the group that checks what people bring into the country. Customs can then check if you have been to other countries and share that information with the government.

The government can only share your information with other countries if they have a special agreement. This agreement says what information can be shared and how it will be used. You can find out more about these agreements in the Social Security Act 2018.

Customs can use the information they get from the government to check if you have been to other countries. They can then share that information with the government, which can use it to decide if you should get a benefit. The government can also share this information with other countries, but only if they have the right agreement in place.

There are rules about how the government can share your information. For example, they can only share it with other countries if they have a special agreement, like an information matching agreement under the Privacy Act 1993 or an approved information sharing agreement under the Privacy Act 2020. This means that your information is protected and can only be shared in certain ways.

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View the original legislation for this page at https://legislation.govt.nz/act/public/1986/0120/latest/link.aspx?id=DLM7039713.

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Part 5Administrative provisions
Disclosure of information: Disclosure to government agencies

309Information matching for purposes of mutual assistance provision contained in social security agreement

  1. The purpose of this section is to facilitate the exchange of information between Customs and the department for the purpose of giving assistance to the Government of a country with which New Zealand has a social security agreement that contains a mutual assistance provision under the Social Security Act 2018 for the Governments of New Zealand and the other country to supply each other with information for social security purposes, to enable compliance with that agreement.

  2. For the purpose of this section, the chief executive of the department may supply to the chief executive of Customs—

  3. any identifying information supplied to the department by the Government of that country; and
    1. any identifying information obtained by the department about a person who has applied for a benefit to which that social security agreement applies.

      1. If, in relation to any person, identifying information is supplied in accordance with subsection (2), the chief executive of Customs may compare that information with any arrival and departure information held by Customs that relates to that person.

      2. If Customs has information relating to the person, the chief executive of Customs may, for the purpose of this section, supply to the chief executive of the department any arrival and departure information relating to that person that is held by Customs if that information is of a type specified in an agreement made under regulations made under section 450 of the Social Security Act 2018.

      3. If the chief executive of Customs has supplied information under subsection (4), the department may supply that information to the competent institution of the Government of the other country in accordance with the mutual assistance provision of the social security agreement.

      4. If information is supplied to the chief executive of Customs under subsection (2), the chief executive—

      5. may use that information for the purposes set out in subsections (3) and (4):
        1. may not supply that information to any other country without the prior written consent of the chief executive of the department, and that supply or consent may be subject to any conditions that the chief executive of the department considers appropriate to impose.

          1. On or after 1 December 2020, no information may be supplied under this section except under—

          2. an information matching agreement entered into under Part 10 of the Privacy Act 1993 and continued by clause 11 of Schedule 1 of the Privacy Act 2020; or
            1. an approved information sharing agreement entered into under subpart 1 of Part 7 of the Privacy Act 2020.

              1. In this section,—

                department means the department for the time being responsible for the administration of the Social Security Act 2018

                  social security agreement means an agreement (for example, a Convention), or an alteration to an agreement, in respect of which an Order in Council has been made under section 380 (orders adopting reciprocity agreements) of the Social Security Act 2018.

                  Compare
                  Notes
                  • Section 309(1): amended, on , by section 459 of the Social Security Act 2018 (2018 No 32).
                  • Section 309(4): amended, on , by section 459 of the Social Security Act 2018 (2018 No 32).
                  • Section 309(6A): inserted, on , by section 190 of the Privacy Act 2020 (2020 No 31).
                  • Section 309(7) department: amended, on , by section 459 of the Social Security Act 2018 (2018 No 32).
                  • Section 309(7) social security agreement: amended, on , by section 459 of the Social Security Act 2018 (2018 No 32).